The present invention relates to a connector for a cable and, in particular, to a cable connector suitable for a ribbon-shaped flat cable with core wires arranged at a narrow pitch.
In a typical existing cable connector, wire connection is carried out by using a method in which a core wire of a cable is press-fitted into a slit formed on a press-contact portion of a contact to bring the core wire into press-contact with the contact, or another method in which a core wire of a cable is wrapped or enveloped by a crimping portion of a contact to crimp the core wire to the contact.
In the above-described wire connection methods, however, the press-contact piece or the crimping piece of the contact is no longer adaptable to a present-day multi-wire cable in which core wires are arranged at a narrower pitch.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, an invention has been made of a connector in which a core wire of a cable is brought into direct contact with a side surface of a contact without providing the contact with a press-contact piece or a crimping piece, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications (JP-A) Nos. H05-101853 and H10-255921.
In the electrical connector disclosed in JP-A H05-101853, a first and a second fix/hold member clamp a coated wire with its core wire exposed. In this state, the first and the second fix/hold members are engaged with a fix/hold member attaching portion on a support plate while a center portion of the exposed core wire is placed on a core wire support portion. Furthermore, an end portion of the exposed core wire is placed on an end holding portion of the supporting plate. Thus, a male connector is formed. Thereafter, the male connector is inserted into a cylindrical female connector in a longitudinal direction of the coated wire to bring the exposed core wire into press-contact with the contact. In the above-mentioned manner, the exposed core wire is connected to the contact. Thus, in the above-mentioned electrical connector, clamping of the coated wire and wire connection can not simultaneously be carried out and therefore required troublesome operations.
Moreover, in the above-described electrical connector, the male connector is inserted into the female connector in the longitudinal direction of the coated wire and, within the female connector, the core wire of the coated wire is pressed against the contact in the thickness direction of the male connector. Therefore, it is required to provide a pressing slider for pressing the core wire against the contact and a pressing protrusion for driving the pressing slider in the thickness direction of the male connector. This results in a complicated structure and a disadvantage in production cost.
On the other hand, the connector disclosed in JP-A H10-255921 uses a cable conductor as a plug of the connector. In this structure, a plurality of cables are arrayed on a cable holder by a cable array arranging portion (this corresponds to the clamping operation). Then, each cable conductor is placed in a cable guide groove of the cable holder. The cable conductor is bent into a U-shape to be wound around an end portion of the cable holder. An end of the cable conductor is adhered to the cable holder by lamination (this corresponds to the wire-connecting operation). Thus, the above-described connector also requires troublesome operations because the clamping of the cable and the wire connection can not simultaneously be performed. In addition, the cable array arranging portion and the lamination are required. This results in a disadvantage in production cost.